Chapter 296 Confession (second update)
Sure enough, as Su Rong expected, the road back to the city was very smooth despite the heavy snow.
After entering the city gate, King Ruian stopped in front of the carriage and waited for Su Rong's carriage to approach. He opened the curtain and asked, "Miss Su Qi, I think you should enter the palace directly, what do you think?"
Su Rong nodded, "Okay."
She turned to Ye Guixue, just about to say to send him back to Duke Hu's mansion, but Ye Guixue said: "I also participated in this matter, and I also entered the palace with you."
King Ruian heard Ye Guixue's words, and immediately said: "This is better, please trouble the second son Ye."
Ye Guixue shook her head, "Don't bother."
So, King Rui'an simply took the abbot and others with him to the palace.
In the palace, the emperor had already left the early court, and was reviewing the memorials in the imperial study room. Without Yu An’s service, he felt that other people’s service was not good enough, and everything was not satisfactory, but he couldn’t let Yu An out. In addition, several major cases were involved, so he didn’t know what King Rui’an would find out. Because he didn't think that such a big case could be handled by Li Pin alone.
Hearing that King Rui'an, Miss Su Qi, and Master Ye Er brought the presiding monk of the Great Buddha Temple into the palace, the emperor immediately said: "Xuan."
Not long after, King Rui'an and others came to the Imperial Study Room.
The golden silk charcoal used by the emperor warmed the whole imperial study room. As soon as several people walked in the door, they felt a rush of heat and warmth. Su Rong shook the snow on his body, Ye Guixue flicked his sleeves, and at the same time helped Su Rong straighten the hairpin that was crooked due to her shaking too much.
The emperor was already looking at the two of them, but when he saw Ye Guixue's movements, his gaze paused.
King Ruian cupped his hands in salute, "Your Majesty, I left Beijing last night to re-examine the Great Buddha Temple..."
King Ruian told the emperor in detail what had happened since he left Beijing last night. During the period, he mentioned that Su Rong and Ye Guixue had found the place where the gold was hidden in Yingzui Cliff on the back mountain of the Great Buddha Temple. He repeated it to the emperor based on what Su Rong told him.
After hearing this, the emperor was surprised and angry, "The place where the gold is hidden halfway up the hillside of Yingzui Cliff, two hundred boxes of gold? Was it done by the monks of the Great Buddha Temple?"
King Ruian nodded and shook his head again, "Return to Your Majesty, who did it, we have to investigate further. The abbot of the Great Buddha Temple has always denied it, saying he didn't know about it."
"How much is two hundred chests of gold?" asked the emperor.
"One box of fifty catties of gold, two hundred boxes of one thousand catties of gold." King Ruian said, "It's equivalent to silver taels, about one million taels."
King Ruian glanced at Su Rong and nodded, "Miss Seven mentioned it to me, and I also think so."
Su Rong also said at this time: "Your Majesty, yes, so after Gui Xue and I found the place where the gold was hidden, we felt very strange and had doubts."
The emperor nodded, "Did you find out the place where the gold is hidden because you first found the Great Buddha Temple and based on the clues from the Great Buddha Temple?"
"That's right." Su Rong concealed the fact that Yan Shen entered the East Palace to seek Yan's echo, and naturally also concealed the place where the gold was hidden from Yan Shen's mouth. Everything was based on the similarities between the case of Yushi Zhongcheng Qin Yuan and the case of Li Concubine, as well as doubts about the Great Buddha Temple.
The emperor suppressed his anger, "It's unreasonable. Call me the abbot of the Great Buddha Temple."
Someone went immediately, and after a while, escorted the abbot into the imperial study.
The abbot's face was pale at this time, and when he saw the emperor, he immediately knelt on the ground, "Amitabha, Your Majesty, the poor monk has been wronged."
The emperor looked angry, "I ask you, what do you mean when you say wronged? The Great Buddha Temple, a dignified place of Buddhism, has been found to have hidden evil intentions and filth, and now it has been found that there is a gold deposit on the Yingzui Cliff in the back mountain? You recruited truthfully, and I will remember your affection when the queen mother was alive, and punish you lightly. "
The abbot trembled, "Your Majesty, the poor monk is really wronged, and the poor monk doesn't know how there is a place for hiding gold on the Yingzui cliff at the back of the Great Buddha Temple." He defended with a gray face, "The poor monk has never set foot on the back mountain in these years, let alone Yingzui cliff."
"The cave at the bottom of Yingzui Cliff, where monks loaded trucks to carry rocks in the middle of the night, how do you explain it?" the emperor asked.
The abbot said: "Eleven years ago, before the poor monk's uncle Puhui traveled, he said that he wanted to build a Buddha seat. Ping, the poor monk was flustered, and wondered whether the Buddha blamed the fault, and the platform that should have been built long ago has not been repaired, so he quickly discussed with his brothers and brothers, and put this matter on the agenda, but he did not expect to catch up with yesterday, but was misunderstood by the prince."
Ruian Wangdao: "It doesn't matter if I misunderstand or not. The important thing is the gold hiding place on the mountainside of Yingzui Cliff. What do you say?"
The abbot shook his head with a pale face, "The poor monk really doesn't know."
The emperor slapped the table and was angry, "You don't know? I heard that the mechanism was set up on the mountainside. How time-consuming and labor-intensive is it? How exquisite? It can't be done in a day and a half. If it is labor, there will be a lot of movement. You haven't heard a little movement in the Great Buddha Temple? How many years have you been the abbot? When the Queen Mother was here, you were the abbot for twenty years, right?"
The abbot was speechless.
"It's not true!" The emperor was completely angry, "I will give you another chance, if you continue to say that you don't know, and continue to quibble, I will cut off your head first, and then chop off the heads of all the monks in the Great Buddha Temple, and seal the Great Buddha Temple."
The abbot opened his mouth, his face pale, as if he was stunned, but he didn't make a sound.
Su Rong said from the side: "Master Abbot, don't be foolish. You'd better confess seriously. Since His Majesty gave you the opportunity, he just let you recruit truthfully and punish him lightly. If you commit foolishness again and cover up someone, you will be guilty of deceiving the emperor. If the Great Buddha Temple is massacred, you will be the eternal sinner of the thousand-year-old temple of the Great Buddha Temple."
The face of the abbot became even more gray when he heard the words. After a while, he gritted his teeth and said: "Amitabha, Your Majesty, forgive me, the poor monk... When my uncle suddenly proposed to build the Buddha's seat, the poor monk originally disagreed, because it was too much trouble. Okay, why did you rebuild the seat? And it is so laborious, but the uncle is very persistent. The uncle is highly respected, and the poor monk can only agree. Hand. At that time, the poor monk also had doubts, but later saw that what the uncle said was true, and the poor monk was relieved. Half a year later, the uncle went out for a trip. He went away for ten years and has not returned. Now that the prince found out the gold hiding place on the mountainside of Yingzui Cliff, the poor monk suddenly thought of what the uncle did in the middle of the mountainside of Yingzui Cliff by building a Buddha seat. It has only been quiet for half a year, and for the rest of the time, the entire back mountain is very quiet, as His Majesty said, there is absolutely no disturbance, the poor monk doesn't know the truth."
(end of this chapter)